He is celebrating after winning a new Siromer tractor in The Western Mail competition staged jointly with Carmarthen Small Tractor and Trailer Centre at Cwmffrwd, Carmarthen, to celebrate the return of Country and Farming earlier this year.

The £5,200 machine is perfect for landowners needing a specialist machine or unable to justify the cost of a conventional tractor to work a few acres. That makes it ideal for Mr Lewis and his 73-acre mixed hill farm at Brechfa, Carmarthen.

"When I was told we had won, I had to make sure that it was not a wind-up," said Mr Lewis, who rears Dexter cattle and pigs for meat and keeps bees for honey.

"It's quite spectacular to win a brand new piece of farm machinery and it's so compact and easy to use. And it comes at a time when we can put it to good use."

Mr Lewis is clearing drainage ditches on the farm and plans to buy more attachments to use it as a general tractor.

"We have an ordinary tractor but the benefit of this is that you can get into smaller areas and it doesn't churn up the fields in wet weather."

The Small Tractor and Trailer Centre is owned and operated by Chris Parrott, who believes he has identified a gap in the marketplace.

"We know the countryside is going through a period of great change and we are part of it," said Mr Parrott, who set up his business last October after 30 years in the motor trade.

He imports the tractors from China, assembles them in Cwmffrwd and aims to sell to the equestrian world, hobby farmers and smallholders.

"I'm a hobby farmer myself and I came across these tractors a couple of years ago and bought one for myself."

He delivered seven after exhibiting at the recent Royal Welsh Smallholder Fair.